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Maryland-based HMSHost plans to lay off 135 employees of Detroit Metropolitan Airport restaurants scheduled to close Aug. 15 as the management contract for those restaurants transfers to Atlanta-based Hoeji Brand Foods.

But the employees are expected to be considered for jobs with the new restaurants slated to replace those closing, per the agreement with Hoeji, said Brian Lassaline, a spokesman for the Wayne County Airport Authority.

The majority are union hourly jobs represented by Unite Here Local 24, according to the WARN Act notice HMSHost filed with the state.

Buildout for the new restaurants is expected to begin in August, with openings planned three to four months later, Lassaline said.

The restaurants are the first of 25 new restaurants expected to open in the McNamara Terminal by fall 2015.

The new restaurants will add about 22,000 square feet of additional space to the McNamara Terminal's food and beverage program and account for about $31.6 million in capital investment.

The Wayne County Airport Authority expects the restaurant expansion to generate $63 million in sales, an increase of more than 47.5 percent from the current sales volume of food and beverage concessions in the terminal.